South Africa Renames Port Elizabeth Gqeberha

Zimbabwe’s Southern neighbor South Africa has renamed one of its cities Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha, eNCA reports. The country’s Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa reportedly approved the change. Here are the new names for the areas that were changed by South Africa according to the publication:

1. Port Elizabeth was renamed Gqeberha
2. Port Elizabeth airport was renamed Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport
3. The East London airport was renamed King Phalo Airport
4. Uitenhage Town was renamed Kariega
5. King William’s Town was renamed Qonce
6. Maclear is now Nqanqarhu

Zimbabwe a few years ago embarked on a similar exercise of trying to get rid of colonial names given by the colonialists to roads, schools, hospitals etc. The process was halted and some of the structures maintained their names.

Source: eNCA